If someone asks you, there is this word that either excites your senses or scares the life out of you. It has become such a prevalent verb used a lot by government officials, bosses and techies. It has the connotation that one must have a creative mind. Or there must be much resources at your disposal before an idea becomes feasible. Or it's somewhat binary where you do well or simply cannot do. There's really no in between, either you succeed or fail. The word is "Innovate".
In a recent conversation, I came away with a new perspective on how to view this. When you are given a task to innovate, often the approach is to create something new, like ditching a regular phone and in its place, make a smart phone. This is product innovation and probably most commonly heard. An "upgraded" version of innovate is to take the smart phone and find ways to produce it cheaper or add new functions to increase its appeal. This is known as process innovation. Yet another way is to improve the smart phone's sales probability by providing better marketing channels, technical support and delivery time. This is service innovation. The first two types deal with internal stakeholders while the last deals with the external.
Which of the above is the most difficult type of innovation? I think it's product innovation. I also have a feeling that most people correlate innovation with product creation. From a petrol driven vehicle to a fully electric one, this innovation leap is usually onerous and time consuming. That's what a person immediately feels upon hearing that dreaded word. He is defeated before work has even begun. I see much of this in my workplace. Hopefully, I would be able to share this new thinking with more people next time and reduce the stigma of what it means to innovate.
Tip: Masumi Sanka Junmai Daiginjo
The most exciting industry to be in now is probably technology related. Within it, the domain of cryptocurrency is the most intriguing. It's been 12 years since the first creation of Bitcoin and my guess is the majority of the world is still rather clueless about this technology and its potential advancement.
The Covid situation has taught the world some useful lessons. Medical demands were well beyond planned capacities, people couldn't get out of the house and business supply chains were severely disrupted. The simple message is, "We live in an imperfect world." And this is where I believe blockchain could help resolve some of the issues. Even as the infection numbers continue to rise, researchers are racing against time and desperation grows. Among these, disinformation is a great problem. Whatever numbers we hear in news are controlled. Be it death tolls, vaccine trial successes, job losses, funds expended to sustain businesses etc. I think faith in the government systems and trust in leaders are at a deficit. It's got to do with this huge unknown that the virus brought.
But life must go on and through every disaster, humans ultimately find a way to get up. In this instance, blockchain has a role to play. What it potentially brings to the table are borderless transactions, cashless payments, verifiable information, lower fees and much more. All these seek to improve transaction efficiency, bridge information gap and bring trust back to people to the world we live in. A cryptocurrency is just a product out of this brand new ecosystem. During this evolution, pain would be felt by those who continue to resist as they are forced into a new life/work environment. That's what a single virus could do.
Tip: Ippin Junmai Daiginjo
